My Help Source

What is your enduring leadership impact?

Photo Credit: Jan Tik via Compfight

As a twenty-first century guy, it's natural that I am active on Facebook, right? Of course it's natural!

I also maintain an active presence at Twitter and even Pinterest, but it is Facebook that has allowed me to contact the largest number of people with whom I’ve worked.

As I recently engaged in a Facebook discussion involving people with whom I served in Germany over two decades ago, I was struck by the lasting impact we have on those whom we interact. The impact is even more enduring when we lead.

One of Seth's Best - Signals vs. Causes

Seth Godin is always good, but this post is one of his best! 

It turns out that people who use Firefox are more likely to engage in certain online activities than those that use IE.

And it turns out that people who eat before bed are believed to gain more weight than those that don't.

Perhaps using Firefox makes you a different sort of surfer, or the timing of the calories has something to do with your metabilism.

More likely: The sort of person who takes the time to install a new browser is precisely the kind of person willing to use a new web service. The kind of person who makes a habit out of eating when bored (just before bed) might very well be the kind of person that has to wrestle with weight.

We see the same thing in outbound marketing. Spammers in Nigeria continue to...

Read the rest HERE

Clean Bathrooms (with thanks to Seth Godin)

Seth says:

Clean bathrooms

The facilities at DisneyWorld are clean. It's not a profit center, of course. They don't make them clean because they're going to charge you to use them. They make them clean because if they didn't, you'd have a reason not to come.

It turns out that just about everything we do involves cleaning the bathrooms. Creating an environment where care and trust are expressed. If you take a lot of time to ask, "how will this pay off," you're probably asking the wrong question. When you are trusted because you care, it's quite likely the revenue will take care of itself.

And Seth is right. Everything Disney does is designed and executed with one thought in mind -- to enhance their guests' experiences. 

The Best You Can Do...

 

Costa Concordia - Aground (Photo: andrius.it)

I've heard it said.

Maybe you've said it yourself.

To be honest, I know I've said it!

"That's the best I can do."

If you're like me you know that whatever it is, it really isn't the best you can do, right?

The fact is, the best we say we can do isn't really the best we can do, is it?

What will you do better today? (I've made it simple to Tweet - Just click HERE!)

10 Ways to Donate (Safely!) After Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has passed, but the devastation remains. 

There's a big mess to clean up and millions of people who need help.

You've decided you want to step up to the plate and donate to the cause.

Good on you!

Good people from around the world are stepping up to the plate to lend a hand. 

Sadly, when disasters strike, bad people rise to the occasion along with the good, looking for ways to add to victimize those who've come to help. 

10 Propositions About Time

1. Time is a precious commodity.
2. Time can be neither bought nor sold. 
3. Time cannot be reproduced or repeated.
4. Time cannot be duplicated; every moment is unique to itself.
5. Time affects us all.
6. Once time is past, it's gone forever.
7. Worrying about wasting time or the time we've wasted is, in and of itself, a waste of time.
8. We can make the most of our time or least of our time, but we cannot make time.
   
9. Time passes, despite the presence or lack of activity.
   
10. There's no time like the present and there's no present like the time.

That's Not Leadership

"You don't lead by hitting people over the head. That's assault, not leadership."

-General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Photo: Unnamed photographer for US Army (Navy history Navy history article) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Are You Doing It Right, Or Merely Doing It?

I had a lot going on and didn't have time to do it myself, so I hired a locksmith to repair the front door locking hardware on our house. A few hours after that guy left--with our money!--our renter called to tell me they couldn't get into the house because the front door hardware was broken. 

I drove to the house, gathered up the necessary parts that the purported locksmith had scattered around our entryway, and fixed the thing myself. It's worked for about 18 months now, without a hitch.

In similar fashion, the "professionals" from Sears who installed our new dishwasher failed to install it properly. Oh, the water and electrical connections are fine, but they didn't attach the unit securely to prevent it from tipping when we opened the door. 

I fixed that too. With two screws...and in less than 2 minutes. 

Pitch Your Product, Service, Idea, or Self in Just 15 Seconds

Whether you know it or not, you are in an almost constant state of selling.

You don't even have to be in the sales business. In fact, you just have to be a living, breathing human being.

Don't fight this. Just accept it as fact and move on. 

Now that we've settled that, and with the selling part of you in mind, here's an excellent piece from Forbes, How to Pitch Anything in 15 Seconds, which will help you sell any product, service, idea, or even yourself with greater ease.

This piece, by Carmine Gallo, and its accompanying video will give you three very easy steps to help you build a message map that will equip you to pitch anything in just 15 seconds:

What Are You Willing To Risk?

Each of the 56 men who signed our Declaration of Independence made an extraordinary promise, penning their names below this affirmation, "...for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

They risked everything--their lives, possessions, and honor--to declare independence from the tyranny of the King of England.

They withheld nothing, because life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights, given not by man, but by the Creator of all things. 

Even those who are crowned as monarchs or elected as political leaders can neither give nor take these rights.